Tax burden: Americans spend more on taxes than food and clothes

Tax reform or tax cut, call it what you will — Americans’ tax burden is high

(National Sentinel) Tax Reform: As President Donald J. Trump ramps up his push for the first serious tax reform effort in 30 years, a report Thursday revealed just how heavy a burden taxes are for average Americans.

As reported by CNS News, which cited Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Americans are spending more annually on taxes than they do for food and clothing. What’s more, Americans’ tax burden is getting higher:

Americans on average spent more on taxes in 2016 than they did on food and clothing combined, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The same data also shows that in three years—from 2013 to 2016—the average tax bill for Americans increased 41.13 percent.

In 2016, according to BLS, “consumer units” (which include families, financially independent individuals, and people living in a single household who share expenses) spent more on average on federal, state and local taxes ($10,489) than they did on food ($7,203) and clothing ($1,803) combined ($9,006).

The average tax bill for American “consumer units” increased from $7,423 in 2013 to $10,489 in 2016, according to data released this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Here’s a breakdown:

“I’ve never heard anyone describe a tax move as tax reform if their own taxes were getting increased. So I don’t think we’re talking about tax reform. Reform for one person is something else for the other,” billionaire Warren Buffett told Fox Business Network‘s Liz Claman.

“But it looks like we’re moving more and more towards an overall tax cut. And that isn’t where we started. We talked about being revenue neutral originally, but I think that the politics have evolved in such a way that if you’re going to get anything done reasonably fast, it can’t be a 1986 type massive reform act. So I think if we see a tax change it isn’t necessarily tax reform, it will be a tax cut. It will be called tax reform though,” he continued.

Whatever. As the data indicate, Americans could use a tax cut. And for the record, that’s what President Donald J. Trump called it yesterday during a speech in Missouri, where he called out vulnerable Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, for opposing tax cuts.

“We must lower our taxes and your senator, Claire McCaskill, she must do this for you, and if she doesn’t, you have to vote her out of office,” he said, as reported by The Hill.

Buffett has a point, however, regarding ‘revenue neutral.’ That means for the tax cuts proposed, there should also be spending cuts, so that we don’t swell our already bloated national debt even further.